Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

There is masses to celebrate this week as our students have been in sparkling form.

Over the last two months, the Computing Department at Woking High School has joined other schools in taking part of the Digital Schoolhouse E-Sport Tournament playing the Overwatch computer game. Over 60 students have competed to date. A team of Year 10 boys (has won the school title, and will be competing at the regional qualifiers, which will be taking place on 26^th March in Stratford – London. If they are successful, then they will be competing in the UK national final on 10^th April.

During last weekend our Year 10 Girls Basketball team became County champions beating Harris Academy Crystal Palace 42 – 23. The game was much closer than the score line suggested with all girls contributing to the success.

On Sunday at the British Schools Biathlon Championships at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre our Under 15 boys’ team were in outstanding form, winning the British Schools Biathlon for the second consecutive year. All four Under 15 boys recorded considerable personal bests in both runs and swims. The team consisted of Josh Thompson, Michael Young and Alexej Baldwin but were well supported by Steven Wood. Please see results below:

British Schools Biathlon

Under 15 Boys Team Results:

1st       Woking High                          6746

2nd      Strathallan School                   5201

3rd       Campion School                      5082

Individual Results (Top 20 only):

Under 15 Boys            Joshua Thompson        5th

Under 15 Boys            Michael Young           8th

Under 15 Boys            Alexej Baldwin           11th

Under 15 Boys            Steven Wood              14th

Under 12 Girls            Bella Hornzee             17th

On Tuesday Our Year 7 Girls competed at the County Finals at Guildford Spectrum all of the team performed superbly. There were eleven schools competing our girls finished agonisingly in second place. Please see top three team results below :

1st       Howard of Effingham            468

2nd      Woking High                          457

3rd       Rodborough                            455

Also over the weekend, brothers Chris (Year 11) and Marin Somlev (Year 7) represented the school at the British Schools Judo championships in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport. Both performed extremely well with Martin winning Bronze in the Under 15 55kg category and Chris in ninth place in the Under 16 66kg category.

On Thursday our Year 7 Girls Basketball team became County Champions winning all three games in the process.

Please see scores below:

Won 7 - 4 v George Abbott

Won 19 - 4 v Teddington

Won 20 - 0 v Howard of Effingham

This caps an outstanding season where the girls remain unbeaten.

Following the success of our Vocal, Instrumental, Solo and Ensemble competition last week, several of our outstanding musicians performed for all 270 children and staff at The Horsell Village School on Tuesday morning. A request for live music had been made some weeks ago by Miss Newman, their Music Coordinator, and we were happy to oblige by sending recent participants of the school’s annual music competition to inspire and entertain the enthusiastic infants. Instrumental performances included Nona Lawrence on violin, Meghan Amin on the flute, Leanne Seet on the piano and a particularly notable piano solo by Kia Westaway, whose mum works at The Village School and was able to hear Kia play this technically challenging piece. Two very engaging theatrical vocal solos were given by Phoebe Osborne and Lois Miller, but Karl Sonoy and Madeleine McClements reduced some staff to tears with a hauntingly beautiful rendition of ‘Never Enough’ from The Greatest Showman. This was a lovely opportunity to showcase musical talent and also to provide our own students with additional experience in live performance. Thank you to Fiona Godden from Surrey Arts for joining us to accompany the students on the piano.

Later that afternoon we had 30 very keen bakers take part in the Year 9 round of the “Bake Off” and the standard was extremely high! However, just like last week Curie were the winning House gaining 500 housepoints for their amazing bakes!!!

House Team Results:

1^st Curie (500)

2^nd  Faraday(200)

3^rd  Stephenson(100)

4^th Brunel (50)

Individual winners:

Callum Bright and Dylan Gubb (8W) (50)

Lily Hallam and Amy Rolfe (8Y) (50)

Our Year 7 cohort had the opportunity to meet with author Julie Sykes on Thursday 21st March.  Julie enthused the Year 7 students during her interactive talk about her books.  Our students had so many questions to ask her that Julie was overwhelmed by their passion.  Julie was impressed by our students’ behaviour and their enthusiasm for reading and writing, and stressed that this enthusiasm went above and beyond in her experience of visiting secondary schools.

Thursday evening was a buzz of activity as Year 8 parents and students attended the Year 8 Consultation Evening. Consultation evenings are an important part of our communication with parents, so it was particularly pleasing to see that 86% of parents attended to speak to teachers about the students’ progress. Parents who were unable to attend will be contacted by the pastoral team to arrange another time to discuss progress of their son or daughter.  

Congratulations to Stephanie Maties who passed her Grade 6 clarinet exam with a merit.

Please see attached a flyer announcing the forthcoming Woking Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert on March 23^rd.  Of particular interest there will also be a pre-concert talk about the music by our Conductor, Roy Stratford, at 6.45 p.m. before the concert begins, which is available to all ticket-holders.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

Last week’s news review ended with us wishing ‘good luck’ to our Year 8 and 9 Mock Magistrates team. Our good wishes paid off and I’m delighted to report that the Woking High School team of Lily Harris; Adam Ahmed; Lily Hallam; Tatiana Neeson; Ollie Strong; Anya Treat; Tom Heggberg; Alex Heeney; Joshua Ford; Joni Dervishi; Amnah Dar; Lidewine Saris; Amelie Wilson-Rivers; Eva Beeharry; Erin Fitzgibbon under the expert guidance of Mrs V Thomas won the competition. We beat 6 other schools and the team won the High Sheriff’s shield for the third year in a row, as well as £200 prize money.  Members of the team will represent the school at the High Sheriff’s awards evening at the end of March.

Also over the weekend, our Year 7 Girls won the District Sports Hall Athletics competition and are now competing in the County Finals on Tuesday of next week; the boys’ team finished third. We wish our team of nine students, who are competing in the British Schools Biathlon Finals this weekend at Crystal Palace, good luck .

Throughout this week Year 11 students have been completing additional indicative exams in core subjects to give them extra practice before the final GCSE exams begin in May. Year 10s have also completed MFL speaking tests today.

We always look for opportunities to praise and reward our students. This week Year 8-11 students were presented with Half Colours and Colours. Congratulations to all those who received this award. Year 7s will receive Half Colours at the start of next academic year and there will also be another opportunity for all other year groups to be recognised at this point.

On Monday, I was delighted to represent Woking High School at the Woking Rotary Club swimathon presentations. Back in October, six teams from Woking High School in the swimathon, and the Friends of Woking High School, were named as recipients of the Local Charities Award, supported by Woking Rotary and Trident Honda. We are very grateful to Woking Rotary for their ongoing support.

In the evening, we welcomed our September 2019 Year 7 cohort of students. All Year 6 students were allocated secondary places on 1^st March and in the first stage of their induction we invited them and their parents to a “Welcome Meeting”. A packed hall heard Mrs Abbott, Mrs Walter, Mr Crowley and Mrs Doe speak to parents about the ethos and values of Woking High School, the Year 7 curriculum and pastoral structure, along with the plans for induction. Meanwhile Year 6 students enjoyed taster sessions in Art, Science, Design Technology and Computing. There was also an opportunity for parents to speak informally to senior staff over coffee and cake. All agreed that it was a very successful and pleasant evening and our new students reported that they were happy and excited to be part of the Woking High School family.

After school on Tuesday, a group of 28 eager Year 9 students launched our 2019 House Bake Off competition and they really set the bar high! This year’s theme was ‘Great British Sporting Success’ and there were lots of very creative and wonderfully decorated bakes showcasing this. The overall winners were Curie who gained a whopping 500 housepoints for their amazing efforts! Individual winners for their ‘Wimbledon’ themed cupcakes were Annabelle Mcalister and Aiman Razaq, who represented Brunel, and Emma Griffin and Amelia Sage who represented Stephenson with their delicious football Cupcakes. We look forward to the Year 8 Bake Off next week!

On Wednesday 13^th March 2019, the school hosted an evening of music, which showcased the very best of our students’ musical talent. Sponsored by SEYMOURS of Horsell, and in its 11^th year, the annual Ensemble, Solo Instrumental and Vocal Competition was first held in 2008, in memory of student Lorna Paterson. Her mother Alison donated a wonderful silver cup which is awarded to the overall winner of the coveted “Lorna Paterson Award for Special Achievement in Music”. To listen, deliberate and then select winners of each category, we welcomed three special guest judges: Anna Loveday, Director of the S7 Consortium of Sixth Form Colleges; Rachel Brazendale, Director of Music at Gordon’s School, and Michael Couper, local musician at St Mary’s Church, Horsell. Our musical experts certainly had an unenviable task!

The evening’s entertainment featured 17 performances in various categories, including Small Ensemble, Woodwind, Percussion, Strings, Voice and Pianoforte. In addition, last year’s overall winner, Mana Komatsu opened the event with a wonderful solo on the piano. The soloists, many of whom were accompanied on the piano by Fiona Godden, gave polished performances throughout, playing a varied repertoire, including graded examination pieces, to songs from the latest and most popular film and stage musicals.  As the judges were making their final decisions, the audience were treated in the finale to a tuba solo. We had invited alumni, Christopher Pearce, who is currently studying at Gordon’s School, to conclude the evening.  Chris played the `Andante’ by Alexander Tcherepnin, and this really was a very special performance and much appreciated by a most welcoming audience of parents, friends, students, governors and staff members.

In summing up, the judges commented on the high standard of musicianship and the excellent way in which all of the performers had presented themselves. It was indeed a difficult task, but after much deliberation, the Most Promising Performance went to Cameron Sia in Y7, and then Mana Komastsu presented the overall winner’s cup, the `Lorna Paterson Award for Special Achievement in Music’ to Nona Lawrence. Nona’s violin solo was truly outstanding, but Jack Edwards’ performance on the drums was also so good, that judges found it very difficult to decide between them.

It was a lovely evening of fine music, and we didn’t notice the howling winds whipping around the walls of the hall at all.  Kind donations given as the audience departed raised £295 for the cystic fibrosis trust.

Congratulations to all students who entered the competition and well done to all category winners. The following students entered the competition (winners of each category *) in no particular order:

Woodwind Category

Y10 - Rachel Allen (flute)*

Y8 - Meghna Amin (flute)                            

Vocal Category

Y11 - Madeleine McClements*

Y7 - Phoebe Osborne    

Y10 - Lois Miller                                                          

Y10 - Lilia Wada     

Percussion Category

Y10 -  Jack Edwards*

Pianoforte Category

Y9 - Kai Westaway*

Y8 - Leanne Seet                                

Y7 - Cameron Sia                                    

String Category

Y9 - Nona Lawrence (violin)*       

Y10 - Harry Davies (guitar)                           

Y10 - Charlotte Joos (violin)     

Y10 - Toby Webb (guitar) 

                       

Small Ensemble Category

Y11 - Madeleine McClements, Y8 - Karl Sonoy (vocal)*

Y10 - Lois Miller, Lilia Wada (vocal)

Y10 - Rachel Allen, Isobel Picken (flute)                                         

                               

Most Promising Performance

Y7 – Cameron Sia, (piano)*

The ‘Lorna Paterson Award for Special Achievement in Music’  Presented by Mana Komatsu (2018 winner)

Y9 - Nona Lawrence (violin)*       

Day 11, yesterday, was a vibrant and exciting day with over 350 students involved in activities off site.   It was the first big off site activity for Year 7 and over 134 student took up the opportunity to visit the Down and Wealdland Open Air Museum, where History was really brought to life as students could actually go in and explore a range of houses and buildings from across the centuries to see how living and working conditions have changed.  Year 10 GCSE DT students visited the Design Museum to help support their current classwork projects by seeing first-hand the work of designers and the evolution of ideas.  Year 11 GCSE Geography students completed their Geographical Coastal Study to prepare for Paper 3 of the final GCSE exam with a visit to Barton-on-Sea to collect data on coastal management and experience first-hand how this bridges the physical and human world.

Some of the Young Carers had a day at Surrey University where they were took part in a number of team building activities through a range of sporting activities.  Back at school there were activities for those left behind: Year 7s spent the day in English;  Year 8s looked at the use of Media and created a comic strip to tell a story; Year 9s spent an exciting day in Science, making water rockets, while some Year 10s spent time completing their Languages speaking assessment ahead of the  Year 10 examination series, with the rest of the year group spending time in Maths and PE. Year 11 Art and Drama students used the time for final examination preparation, with the remainder using the time for private examination practice and revision. 

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

At the end of last week our Senior public speaking team faced stiff competition from five other schools at the District Final of the Rotary Club Youth Speaks competition. Isabel Metcalfe came first as Vote of Thanks, but our team overall were pipped at the post by St Philip Howard Roman Catholic High School in Barnham, Chichester.

The judges were clearly agonised by the process, taking well over half an hour to decide on the winners. His Honourable John Bishop, a retired circuit judge and chairman of the judges, spoke of being “heartbroken” at not being able to send more teams through and commended our main speaker, Alana Lynch, for her speech, which he described as “astonishing”. Our team did perform superbly and felt proud to have lost to such worthy winners in a very strong field. As ever, our thanks go to Woking District Rotary Club for sponsoring us in this worthwhile and prestigious event.

Monday was the deadline for the Options process and we are very pleased that all students managed to make their choices within the time frame. The choices have now been passed over to our timetabling team, who will try to make it all fit! If we have to use a student’s reserve subject, we will discuss that with the student. Once we have the choices confirmed, we will communicate these to students and parents.

Over the past week, our sports teams have been involved in a number of competitions. The Year 11 Boys were crowned champions at the District Basketball Final  and the Year 7 Girls Netball team won the District tournament.

As a school we have worked with “Advanced Sport” over a number of years. They provide elite training for aspiring athletes in any sport. They are offering two free trials for their training programme. Please email talent@advancesport.co.uk if you are interested in signing your child up for a free trial. The website is www.advancesport.co.uk http://www.advancesport.co.uk/  

On Wednesday, Woking High School students and staff celebrated World Book Day, in fact they have been marking the event all week with a variety of activities including Monday’s “So you think you know Harry Potter quiz?” where students competed against each other, answering many of the difficult questions successfully. First place went to Charlie Wigley.  On Tuesday, groups of students competed in the “Beat the Teachers Harry Potter Quiz” against Mr Forster (stepped in at last minute), Miss Barlett (Harry Potter) and Mrs Pollard (Professor McGonagall).  Mr Wakely hosted this event dressed as Dumbledore and kept students and staff entertained.  All groups did exceptionally well with Dumbledore’s Army taking first place.  The WHS book Fair this year was Percy Jackson themed; Year 7 VI students visited Poseidon’s cabin and students were able to purchase books from Woking High Library to raise funds for new books and Usborne books. Great fun was had by all!

Please may I draw your attention to two important events next week. On Monday 11th March 6-7pm we are hosting a “Welcome” Evening for all new (September 2019) Woking High School students and their parents. On Wednesday 13th March 6:30 onwards, the school is delighted to be hosting our annual Ensemble, Solo Instrumental and Vocal Competition in memory of Lorna Paterson. This competition is now in its 11th year and promises a wonderful evening of high quality musicianship to which all are extremely welcome.

Finally we wish our Year 8 and 9 Mock Magistrates team ‘Good Luck’ as they participate in the competition at Guildford Crown Court.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

 

Welcome back to the second half of the Spring Term. I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful, if unseasonal, sunny weather.

                                                                                 

Our ski visit to Prato Nevoso took place over half term with 55 students from Years 8-11 and 7 staff taking part. They enjoyed a fantastic week skiing in Italy. The mountains were full of snow and there wasn’t a cloud all week. The beginners were skiing all over the mountain by day 3, thanks to the excellent instructors, whilst the more experienced skiers enjoyed the snow park, the jumps and the adjoining resorts.

 

During half term, Anthony Downer in Year 11, competed in the Godalming Performing Arts Festival representing Summerscales Performing Arts in the dance section of the event.  During the tap solo section (15 years and over) Anthony achieved 4th place with 87 marks and has therefore qualified for the All England Dance Regional Finals in May 2019.  This is the first time he has achieved this recognition and it was great to see his confidence and competitiveness on stage.  Anthony, alongside other Woking High School students (who attend Summerscales Performing Arts), have also achieved success at this Festival, qualifying with either individual/partnership/group routines that will be performed at the regional event.  The photo attached captures his routine.    

 

It feels like a long time ago now, but on Saturday 9th February, our Intermediate Youth Speaks team competed for a chance to represent the school in the District Finals.  They all spoke excellently and received a very commendable second place.  Congratulations to all who participated: Adam Ahmed, Amy Cox and Matthew Rayner, who did especially well and was awarded the ‘Best Vote of Thanks’ in the competition. 

 

Congratulations to Madeleine McClements who has been awarded a Music Scholarship to attend Farnborough 6th Form College. She follows in the footsteps of Max Pemberton and Hollie Tibbotts, both previous Woking High School recipients of this scholarship.

 

This week we were delighted to be able to assist the Year 4 classes from Horsell Junior School with their topic: Solids, Liquids and Gases. They wanted to be able to use our equipment to see the changes in state happening, so it was time to get out the Bunsen burners and let them have a go! They also had the chance to look at some dry ice. It was especially good to have the trip organised by a Woking High alumnus - Miss Faulkner. Since leaving Woking High School, she has trained to become a primary school teacher and has taken up her first teaching post at Horsell Junior School. It was great to see her back in the same laboratory that Mrs Pollard taught her in many years ago.

 

Thank you to all parents (92%) who attended the Year 9 Consultation evening last night. Mrs Jarman, Careers Co-ordinator, was in attendance to discuss any career aspirations with students and parents.

 

This month the Digital Schoolhouse school of the month title went to Woking High School. Earlier in February, Year 11 students attended a BAFTA Young Game Designers (YGD) workshop at Woking High School, in association with Ubisoft organised by Mr Afana, Head of Computing. The event kicked off with a careers panel from Ubisoft, followed by a YGD workshop on game development. Students learnt about careers in Video Games, engaging them in opportunities available and spreading awareness of the rich and diverse opportunities in the industry.  Please see details here.

 

Woking High School artists are being showcased at Woking railway station as part of Art @ the Station. The artwork will go up by the weekend and will be displayed for the next few weeks. It is located in the London side (platform 2) waiting room for passengers to enjoy.

 

Finally, as parents may be aware, some students across the country took part in ‘strikes’ to raise awareness for climate change on Friday 15th February. Woking High School’s Head Student Team also recognised the importance of the issue, but decided to take positive action within school so that more students could get involved. Following discussions with the Leadership Team, the school made the Friday a mufti day in order to raise money for charities which help communities affected by climate change, whether that be from flooding, as a result of rising sea levels, or drought in hotter climates. The Head Student Team also setup a stall in the main school foyer to raise awareness about why the mufti day was occurring and about climate change in general. As a result of the positive action, students raised over £1000 for the charities.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jane Abbott

Headteacher